Media with questions about these Marines can
call the 2nd Marine Division Public Affairs Office at (910) 451-9033.
Marine From Indianapolis Killed In IraqApril 6, 2006

A 29-year-old Marine who grew up in Indianapolis
died when he and other troops came under attack during combat operations
in Iraq.

Staff Sergeant Eric McIntosh was among three
Marines killed in the attack on Sunday in Anbar province west of Baghdad.
McIntosh's death came a month after he had started his second tour of duty
in Iraq.

His brother says McIntosh had been in the Marines
for ten years and planned to continue his military career.

McIntosh attended Roncalli High School in Indianapolis
until his family moved to Pennsylvania after his junior year.

His wife, Cynthia, lives in North Carolina,
where he was stationed at Camp Lejeune. He is to be buried Tuesday in Arlington
National Cemetery.
April 6, 2006: Courtesy of the Indianapolis Star

A former Roncalli High School student
who found purpose and passion as a U.S. Marine was killed this week in
Iraq, a month after beginning his second tour in the war.

Staff Sergeant Eric A. McIntosh, 29, an Indianapolis
native, was among three Marines killed in Anbar province Sunday. According
to a Department of Defense news release, all three were assigned to the
3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary
Force. They were conducting "combat operations,'' according to the military.

At least 62 members of the armed forces with
ties to Indiana have been killed in Iraq, and at least 11 more in Afghanistan.

McIntosh had been in the Marines for 10 years
and planned to continue his military career. He finished his first tour
in Iraq in September and returned March 6, three days before his 29th birthday.
After completing the second tour, his brother Richard McIntosh said, Eric
expected to spend about three years as a recruiter.

His mother, Betty McIntosh, said her son battled
asthma as a child. But he became an enthusiastic surfer. Only last year
he informed her he had bought a skateboard and planned to roll on it while
walking his dogs.

"The last time I hugged him, it was just like
hugging a rock,'' his mother said in a telephone interview from Florida,
where she was staying with her daughter and son-in-law, Lisa and Scott
Schoenly. "He didn't have an ounce of fat on him.''

His commitment to the Marines grew after he
became one, his mother recalled. After graduating from high school in Pennsylvania
-- he had attended Roncalli through his junior year -- McIntosh wasn't
sure what to do in life, his mother said.

He called the Army, which Richard McIntosh
had joined; and he talked to Navy recruiters by phone, she recalled. Next,
he called the Marines, and when he told them he didn't have a car to get
down to the recruiting station, they told him they'd come to collect him.

"That's why the Marines got him -- because
they came to get him,'' she said.

Richard McIntosh, who lives in Nashville, Tenn.,
and attended Lawrence North High School from 1981 to 1983 before graduating
in Florida, said his younger brother had grown into a model Marine.

"He loved the Marines. He loved his job,''
said Richard McIntosh, who served in the Gulf War from 1990 to 1991. "He
was a way better soldier than I was.''

Eric McIntosh's wife, Cynthia, lives in North
Carolina. The couple married on September 10, 2001 -- the day before the
terrorist attacks that ultimately led to U.S. troops being deployed to
Afghanistan.

Marine Wanted to Make Military a CareerBy Carol morelloCourtsy of the Washington PostWednesday, April 12, 2006

A Marine who was on his second tour of duty
in Iraq when his Humvee struck a roadside bomb was buried at Arlington
National Cemetery yesterday, just five weeks after he returned to the war
zone.

Staff Sergeant Eric A. McIntosh of Trafford,
Pennsylvania, was the 226th enlisted member of the military killed in the
Iraq war to be buried at Arlington. He turned 29 last month.

The
casket containing the remains of U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Eric McIntosh is
carried to his gravesite bymilitary
honor guard at Arlington National Cemetery

Cynthia
McIntosh, left, widow of Staff Sgt. Eric A. McIntosh, attends his burial
at Arlington National Cemetery with other family members.

Marine
Staff Sgt. Eric McIntosh's mother Betty receives a folded U.S. flag during
her son's burial service at
Airlington National Cemetery, April 11, 2006.

He was interred beside a cherry tree
blooming with pink flowers, with all the haunting ceremony with which the
military honors its fallen: three volleys fired by seven riflemen, a bugler
playing taps and the folding of the American flag that draped his coffin,
which was then handed to his widow. Navy Lieutenant Robert Bradshaw, chaplain
of the 2nd Marine Division in which McIntosh served, officiated.

A breeze carried the sound of birds chirping,
and planes roared overhead on approach to Reagan National Airport on a
path that takes them past the Pentagon.

Dozens of Marines, in dress white pants and
blue jackets, attended the graveside service. So did about 20 members of
the Patriot Guard Riders, a group of motorcyclists who attend funerals
of military men and women as a show of respect, when invited by family
members.

McIntosh would have marked his 10th anniversary
as a Marine in September. He was an infantry unit leader assigned to the
3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division as part of a Marine
Expeditionary Force based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

The Defense Department said McIntosh was killed
April 2, 2006, in Anbar province, an area west of Baghdad that is rife
with insurgents. A high number of U.S. troops have been killed around Anbar,
as have many Iraqi civilians. But U.S. casualties in Iraq have lessened
in recent weeks, and the day McIntosh died marked the highest death toll
for U.S. troops in three months, with at least 10 Marines dead.

McIntosh was one of three Marines riding in
the last Humvee in a convoy near the town of Ramadi when an improvised
bomb exploded next to the vehicle, according to the Raleigh News and Observer.
Lance Corporal. Kun Y. Kim, 20, of Atlanta and Corporal Scott J. Procopio,
also 20, of Saugus, Massachusetts, were killed in the same attack.

McIntosh intended to make a career of the Marines,
perhaps becoming a recruiter once he returned from his second tour or attending
officer's training school, his relatives have told reporters.

He spent most of his youth in Indiana and moved
to Pennsylvania when he was in high school, according to the Indianapolis
Star. He joined the Marines shortly after graduation, his older brother,
Richard, told the paper. He married his wife, Cynthia, on September 10,
2001, the day before the attacks in New York City and at the Pentagon that
would lead to his deployment.
Posted: 6 April 2005 Updated: 12 April 2006 Updated: 18
April 2006 Updated: 12 June 2006